Jeff Bezos explains why product is more important than marketing in the Internet era

I think on the Internet word of mouth is more powerful than it has ever been before. And so on the Internet, everybody buys ink by the barrel, everybody has an opinion and they share them. And so in blogs, on social networking sites, by email, you can easily email 10 friends something, text messages and so on and so on. And so I think this is a very powerful and positive phenomenon for society because I think in the past, if you were making a product, you would put 70. The right business strategy, not necessarily the right thing for society, but the right business strategy was to put 70% of your attention, energy and dollars into shouting about the product, marketing the product, and 30% into building a great product. And so if you could win with a mediocre product, if you were a good enough marketer, and I think that is getting harder to do that strategy, the balance of power is shifting away from companies and toward consumers. And in the future, which I think actually isn't bad for companies as long as they said another way, the individual is empowered, now the individual is getting empowered and what companies. The right way to respond to this if you're a company is say, okay, I'm going to put the vast majority of my energy, attention and dollars into building a great product or service and put a smaller amount into shouting about it, marketing it. Because I know if I build a great product or service, my customers will tell each other, you have to mix in some patience with that. You're going to have to take a long term attitude. But if you do that, I think another way to say it is maybe we're moving into a world where the truth is more on the surface. And I think that's a very healthy and good thing.